Spotify US launch could be imminent

Spotify looks like it has finally managed to win over the American music labels, with general manager Jonathan Forster telling an ad conference that license deals are being closed "as I speak".

In order to make the deals solid, Forster said that Spotify has had to agree to a faster monetisation strategy in the States. This could mean shorter free music listens each month than the European version of the streaming service.

Tom Forenski of Silicon Valley Watcher spoke to Forster at the Omnicom ad conference, who told him "we won't launch before July 5th"

Spotify currently has over ten million subcribers, with one million premium members. Expansion into the US could see the service grow drastically in size, but plans to launch in America have been delayed for more than a year.

Apple's recently announced iTunes Match could dissuade many from the paid version of the freemium service, along with Music Beta by Google and Amazon Cloud Player, all of which are already successful in the US.

Pandora also poses major problems to Spotify in the States, with an already well installed user base taking advantage of its service.